Vale of the Dead
by Nemesis13
Summary: Police Sergeant Ruby Rose and her partner Jaune Arc were just on a regular evening patrol when they got a call for a break in. Thinking they were going to have to deal with a drunk hipster, or a desperate meth head, nothing could prepare them for the truth. After all who in their right mind prepares for zombies, they were just an over used bit of pop culture, weren't they?
1. Welcome to the Masquerade

**I always wanted to write a zombie fic, and I felt the RWBY characters would shoehorn in quite well as the heroic police department in a post apocalyptic zombie outbreak. Couple that with my insomnia and well, you get this.**

 ***Shrugs* Read and review, oh and as for the police codes I used Google for that, if I got them wrong sorry.**

* * *

The night that modern civilization collapsed began like any other for Police Sergeant Ruby Rose. She had checked in at the front desk for her shift, signed out for her radio, gotten the keys for her patrol car from the motor pool, and filled a thermos with bad coffee.

Running her hand through her shoulder length black hair with red frosted tips (something the Captain had been getting on her case to get rid of for months, but really he could go to hell) Ruby sighed as her stomach grumbled. A laugh behind her made the young woman jump in the air and she quickly spun around to glare at her partner.

"Did you skip dinner again Rubes? You know what your sister would say if she found out you weren't taking care of yourself."

Ruby's eyes narrowed as she stared down Sergeant Jaune Arc for a moment as she placed her hands on her hips and growled a bit. Her sister Yang was a championship MMA fighter and a complete health nut, taking after their father in embracing the joys of pugilism and making a career out of it.

She was also ridiculously over protective and scary as hell when displaying her affections for her little sister.

"What if I did Jaune? Gonna narc on me?"

Still chuckling her partner slipped a couple bills into the vending machine behind him, clicked a few buttons, and a moment later threw a honey bun at Ruby who caught it off handed.

"Now why would I do that when you're obviously going to take care of the problem."

Ruby stared at the mass produced prepacked confection for a moment before pouting, "Do you know how many miles I'm going to have to run to work this off?"

Jaune rolled his eyes as he threw an arm around Ruby's shoulders while snatching his own lunch box off one of the lounges tables, "Rubes your sweet tooth knows no bounds. Eat the snacky cake, drink your coffee, and lets get this night over with."

She needed no more prompting and immediately began munching on the pastry as the pair walked out to their patrol car.

Licking her fingers free of residual sugar Ruby made for the drivers seat while adjusting her radio, "We're heading out to Trenton district tonight by the way. There's been loads of complaints about prowlers, and oddly enough missing pets in the past couple days. So that's our night already planned out."

Jaune grimaced as he slid into the passenger seat and began fiddling with the dash mounted computer, "Lovely, we get to spend our evening protecting the rich and famous from imagined boogeymen and coyotes. Awesome."

Ruby snorted in amusement as she placed her handset in the console charger and turned the car on, "This coming from the man married to a super model?"

Jaune grimaced yet again at that, "You know Pyrra retired from that after we decided to start a family."

Ruby rolled her eyes as she pulled out of the lot and flicked the headlights on, "Right, and you two aren't still hideously wealthy from it and she certainly hasn't tried to talk you into resigning yet again in the past twenty four hours."

He sighed in return, "Two, actually."

Ruby snickered as they began their patrol while shooting her partner an amused glance, "What was the speech tonight, 'Jaune I know you feel like you have to be the man of the house but really there is no need for you to keep working'?

He snorted at that while letting his head hit the rest behind him, "Nah, tonight was 'You work a dangerous job Jaune do you really want the kids to grow up without a father if the worst happens?'

Ruby winced, "Ouch, going for the low blow there."

He could only agree and they drove about in comfortable silence for a time before he finally sighed out of boredom, "So what about you? Has the pint sized lesbian super cop found anyone to warm her bed as of late?"

Ruby groaned and nearly slammed her forehead into the steering wheel, "Not you too, ugh. Look Blake tried to hook me up with a friend of hers a few weeks ago and it didn't work out. Don't get me wrong, Velvet was nice but she was just...so...so... _timid_. She jumped at everything and whenever I used sarcasm she'd look like a kicked bunny and would apologize profusely like she had done something wrong. You know my family, I may be the nicest out of us all but I can't _not_ be sarcastic all the time!"

Jaune shot her a look then shook his head, "Yeah ok, sorry I asked. It's just, well, I worry about you, you're kinda married to the job and you did tell me you wanted to start a family of your own at some point."

Ruby didn't respond for a time before she conceded the point, "I appreciate your concern, and Yang's, dad's, Qrow's, and hell even Commissioner Ozpin has brought it up. It's not like I'm not trying it's ju-"

She was cut off as the radio let out a warble, " _Unit 301 please respond to a 10-33 and a possible 10-66 at 4045 Magnolia Way, over."_

Ruby and Jaune sighed at that, Jaune picked up the handset and keyed the mic, "This is unit 301, 10-4 on route to 4045 Magnolia Way, over."

Making a left turn at the next intersection Ruby fumed a few moments before speaking, "Magnolia is the snobby shopping district that sells ten dollar cups of tea and shoes worth more than a months wages isn't it?"

"Yup, Pyrra drags me there every weekend, wonder who was dumb enough to screw with one of the shops there. I've seen their security systems, state of the art for the most part."

"Most part?"

"Yeah, Starbucks only has one of those motion detector dealies, like a garage door light."

"Ah. This is going to be such a waste of time!" Ruby whined a bit because she wasn't wrong, it was either going to be a drunk hipster who was caught pissing in an alley or a meth head trying to steal something for his next fix. Neither of which Ruby felt like dealing with tonight.

She became a cop much like her mom to protect and serve the innocent, not to save idiots from themselves. Growing up in the hills had exposed her to bootleggers, pot farms, meth labs, and turf wars over said contraband. Which tended to surprise her friends who grew up in an urban setting, stereotyping and all that. Regardless, it was stupid greedy people getting themselves and others killed all while leaving a mess for law abiding citizens to clean up afterwords, and she had no real patience for it.

"Now now, all part of the job, look on the plus side, you might get to beat a pervert in the head with your nightstick, haven't gotten to do that in some time right?"

Ruby hummed an off note at that, "Yeah it would be fun I suppose, but I really don't need to deal with a police brutallity case. Remember what happened to Cardin?"

Jaune winced, "How could I not. Ok, this looks like the place," plucking up the mic he keyed it once again, "Unit 301 to dispatch, we're 10-97, checking the scene."

Both cops ignored the monotone reply as Ruby snatched her radio from its charger and placed it on her belt, stepping out of the parked cruiser she double checked her gear and quickly pulled out her high intensity LED flashlight.

Turning the small yet eye meltingly bright light on she shined it through the broken storefront window and let out a low whistle, "Damn, that's tempered glass, you'd have to beat on it with a hammer to even crack it..."

"No kidding, what the hell is this store anyway?" Shining his own light up at the sign he blinked in confusion, "Why would anyone break into a high end pet store?"

Ruby had no response to that, she instead fell back on her uncle Qrow's backwoods training and listened intently to the sounds around her. The store's alarm wasn't like one of those old fashioned school bells, it was actually an almost placid beeping, barely audible from the side walk actually.

There was also panicked squaking from the animals inside, and what sounded like a man grunting as sounds of metal being repeatidly beaten upon echoed from within the broken store front window. Ruby gulped slightly, the dark buildings remaining window shards resting in the frame gleaming in her flashlights glare, looking for all the world like a toothy gaping maw.

"Ok, this is just unsettling..." Jaune muttered, Ruby could only nod in agreement as she hastily shifted her light to her off hand and fumbled for her taser, clicking the safety off in the process.

"I'll take lead, cover me." Jaune knew better than to argue with his partner and followed as she stepped over the windows threshold, being careful to not catch her leg on the broken glass. She took a few steps forward and scanned the area a moment before letting out a choked gasp.

Jaune quickly rushed up to her side to see what startled the normally stoic woman and had to resist the urge to throw up at the sight of the carnage before him.

There really was no telling what the animals had started out as, the blood, guts, and fur scattered around the various torn apart cages making the once pristine shop look like something out of horror movie.

"Oh my god..." Ruby whimpered out quietly as she began scanning the shadows with her light, trying to look at anything other then the bloody remains, and that's when they found their perp.

The man was filthy, heavy set, looked to be around average height dressed in tattered clothes, and he was currently trying to beat open a wire cage filled with terrified puppies with his bare hands. Just as he managed to tear the front of the cage off Jaune focused his light on the man and yelled out "FREEZE!" in his most commanding tone.

The figure did just that, letting out a moan the man then turned to face the two officers and they both blanched as they took in his features. His entire front was covered in blood and viscera, his eyes milky white, and strands of stringy bloody meat hung from his teeth, which was made evident by his complete lack of lips or cheeks.

"Oh my god..." Ruby whispered again. There was protocal to follow, there were procedures an officer of the law had to obey, yet neither cop considered that as they fired their tasers at the man shambling towards them at the same time.

While the wired barbs hit home, and they didn't let up on the trigger, the high voltage weapons didn't even seem to cause the man mild discomfort, much less put him down. No, he just let out another moan and began shambling towards the pair.

Ruby, in her stunned, suddenly adrenaline fueled shock casually noticed that at least the puppies were escaping from the cage as their assaliant persued bigger game.

That was something, right?

She was knocked out of her stupor as the hammer of Thor slammed into the world beside her. Ears ringing she glanced over to Jaune who had ditched his taser and trained his Glock 17 on the perp, his eyes wide in horror as he kept pulling the trigger.

Why was he still firing? Surely the perp had to be dead right? God there was going to be so much paperwork involved with this, hopefully the guy didn't have rich relatives, that would just figure.

As Jaune's slide locked back empty and he fumbled for a new magazine Ruby turned back to the...the...thing, and she saw a neat series of pock marks in his chest and she came to a horrified conclusion.

Jaune had just shot this kitten eating bastard over a dozen times through the heart and lungs and he was still lurching towards them, already halving the distance to a scant four meters, arms extended, teeth gnashing.

Coming to a decision Ruby dropped her taser and she managed to extend her truncheon just as the ghoul was in grabbing range, a moment later the petite woman side stepped and swung the brutal rod of steel with all her might at its left knee.

There was a resounding *CRACK!* as the bone shattered, and while the creature tried to turn and grab the young cop its leg gave way and it fell on its side. Backpedaling away from the bloodied monster it ignored Ruby and began crawling towards Jaune who was hyperventilating as he continued to fumble a new magazine into his pistol.

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST STOP!" Ruby screamed as she jumped on the things back and began pummeling its head with her truncheon. She didn't let up, the thing kept spasming no matter how much she concussed it, no matter the fact that she cracked its skull, no matter the her baton was now buried deep in its brain matter, it wou-

"Ruby!" A strong pair of arms grabbed the panicking cop and as she was about to pull a rather nasty self defense move on this most recent attacker his words managed to burn through her panic induced haze, "Rubes calm down, it's dead, you did it. Please relax."

Suddenly, all the manic energy she had felt a moment earlier was gone, it was now replaced with exhaustion, and she was just... so so damn tired. They stood there for a well over a minute, ears ringing, hearts pounding, taking in the sight of the still twitching corpse before them.

"Please tell me that wasn't what I think it was," Ruby muttered. She didn't even know if Jaune could hear her at the moment, firing guns in an enclosed space without ear protection was always a bad idea after all.

Apparently, he had, "If you're thinking we just had a stand off with a...a _zombie_ , then sorry...I can't tell you that..."

After a few moments Ruby shook herself and quickly made for the broken window, sidestepping the brained corpse on the floor and doing her best not to throw up. Hopping back onto the sidewalk she quickly made for their still running cruiser and froze as she reached for the door handle.

"Jaune..." Her partner, still wide eyed and in a semi-shocked state looked over the car to meet Ruby's gaze.

"Yeah?"

"We still have the shotgun and rifle in the trunk, right?"

He blinked, "Yeah, why?"

Ruby gulped, and near panicking yet again frantically hopped in the car while yelling "WE HAVE TO GO NOW!"

Jaune glanced in the direction she had been staring and swore as he followed her into the cruiser, a moment later it popped into gear, pulled a rubber pealing U-turn, and left the two dozen shambling corpses stumbling down the road behind it.

* * *

 **Meet the intelligent protagonists to a horror movie, anyway I meant to write this at Halloween and wasn't feeling the muse, so here it is now.**


	2. Coping Mechanisms

**Ruby is in shock at the beginning and not making much sense even to herself, just making that clear now. Please review!**

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Jaune was panicking while he yelled into the radio handset, Ruby reflected on how odd this was since Jaune rarely panicked, and he never yelled unless someone was pranking the poor guy. Swerving the police cruiser around another shambling undead body Ruby distantly realized she was in a state of shock and hadn't even _begun_ coming to grips with what she had seen and done.

Her thoughts kept reeling about the fact that she had just beaten a man's skull in not even realizing he was dead until she had been stopped by her partner. Though, she hadn't killed him, since he was already dead, and that was the kicker for her calm and what managed to keep her focused.

She had hunted many times before, Uncle Qrow, the crazy as hell ex-special forces operative that he was had seen to her 'proper' education when she was young since her father was too busy being a drunk to be there for her. Not that Qrow didn't share the same trait with Taiyang, he just handled it better than his brother in law.

The quientestional functional alcoholic had made sure she knew how to track prey, set traps, build homemade bombs, and generally be someone who would end up on several dozen Federal Watch lists when they grew up. If she had been dumb enough to let them know about her extracurculiar hobbies that is, which considering the profession she had chosen wasn't really an option regardless.

Becoming a cop like her dearly departed mom had probably saved her many legal hassles but that was all just background noise at the moment. The training, the growing up like a redneck in the hills under her Uncle's tutelage really was what was keeping her sane and alive at the moment.

Simply put, after she had been forced to butcher animals she had killed herself by Uncle Qrow, she was reminded of the queasy nauseous feeling she would get as the formerly adorable critters blood ran down her hands.

It was warm, hot at times actually, and ran like water until the sun baked it to her flesh reminding her what she had done to gain another meal.

The blood splattered across her cheeks and clothes was cold, room temperature, and stank to high heaven. It had been like that when she had beaten the...ugh... _zombie_ into submission, and had only seemingly gotten worse as her foot floored the pedal while they careened through the streets back to the police station.

It all reminded her that she was not in fact a murderer, and these things, unlike the critters she had hunted in the sticks, were not in fact alive.

That was the only reassurance one Ruby Rose had that she was not in fact going insane.

"FUCK!" Jaune threw the handset down as he glanced to his partner who had looked like she was about to have a fit, white knuckled hands gripping the steering wheel as she guided them through the growing chaos of the cities streets.

"What happened?" She asked this in a far away tone, like she was an observer to a passing event rather than someone involved, Jaune frankly didn't blame her for the disconnect. Hell, he was kind of jealous of it really.

"This hit all at once, dispatch ordered everyone to meet on the other side of town to form up a barricade while they try to figure out what the hell is going on. Then the radio died..."

Ruby shot him a look that clearly stated, _'Freaking zombies are a thing that is what is going on! And of course the radio died we're in a freaking zombie flick now!'_ Yet she didn't bother vocalizing it, no need to. Eventually though she spoke up and her words surprised Jaune immensely.

"We're going to be passing through your neighborhood in two minutes Jaune. I know you two have a panic room loaded with supplies along with hurricane shutters on your doors and windows. I'm dropping you off so you can look after your family, I'll just tell the Captain that we got seperated if he asks."

Jaune was silent a few moments before whispering, "Ruby..."

She would have none of that, "No Jaune, you and Pyrrha are more than capable of protecting your family, _together_. If this evens out and we get a handle on the situation great, grand, wonderful. If we don't? At least I know my best friends are safe as they can be..."

They remained silent until Ruby pulled the car up to a gated community, Jaune just stared forward not moving. The stand off was broken as Ruby popped the trunk and turned to her partner with pleading eyes brimming with tears.

"Take the shotgun, protect your family, please. I...Yang's out of state, Blake is with her, I have no one to protect right now but you do. Please, just go Jaune, be with your family and protect them. You've...always been the big brother I wanted Jaune, I know you don't need another sister fretting over you but please. Just go protect your wife and kids, I'm a big girl. I can handle myself."

Jaune stared at her a few moments before reaching over the console to give her a tight hug, "You would have made a good sister, pity I already have a half dozen of those and don't really need any more."

Ruby let out a weak laugh and teary sniff as she returned the hug, a few seconds later Jaune was already out of the car and a moment later a heavy plastic clam shell case landed on the passenger seat.

"The M4, I know you prefer semi-auto rifles so I'll take your suggestion and keep the Mossberg. Ruby once I have everything secured here, if you need me-"

"I've had your phone number memorized since I was thirteen Jaune, don't worry," she said with an amused smirk. Jaune just nodded, turned to the open gate, then took a knee as he opened his own case and pulled out a Mossberg 500 Cruiser shotgun while quickly shoving shells into its tube magazine.

"Be careful sis," he muttered as he shoved the extra shells into his pockets, Ruby barely managed nodding in return as she muttered her reply.

"Watch your six bro..."

* * *

Sergeant Ruby Rose never made it back to the police station, the careening tour bus that slammed into her car before rolling on its side multiple times before crashing into the building beside her made sure of that.

Shaking her head once she no longer was seeing double Ruby turned to the bus that had wrecked her ride in annoyance. Glaring down at her steering wheel she turned the key a few times but got no response for the effort.

"Freaking great..."

Snatching up the rifle case she took the M4 carbine out of its foam enclosure while quickly jamming one of the three magazines present home before pulling back the priming handle. Jamming the spare mags into her pants pockets she stepped out of the car before sighing to herself in exasperation while belatedly affixing her flashlight to the rifle's tactical rail.

Clicking the light on she approached the bus in trepidation, once reaching the broken door she kicked it a few times before it gave in. Stepping up the stairwell Ruby grimaced as she took in the carnage contained within.

The wreck hadn't been pleasant for the bus's occupants, that was for sure. Most of the passengers seemed to be dead already, be it from broken necks, being thrown about, or having luggage crushing them.

Sighing Ruby made her way through the broken opulent bus when she heard a feminine scream. Rushing forward she skidded to a stop as a gorgeous woman with brilliantly white hair and endlessly blue eyes sprinted before her and quickly froze in her guns sights.

Holy shit she would so go down on-

Ugh, not the time to get horny, like at all. Chiding herself she glanced over the snow haired woman's shoulder and bellowed out, "GET DOWN!"

Thankfully the woman listened and fell to the floor without question, so Ruby was able to quickly headshot the trio of zombies that had been trailing her new erstwhile companion.

Sighing she extended her free hand towards the woman smiling lightly as she did so.

"I'm Officer Rose, come with me if you want some...semblence of safety."

The woman sat on her knees staring up at her for a few moments before taking Ruby's hand and raising to her feet, "I'm Weiss... Weiss Schnee... thank you for saving me..."

Ruby shrugged lightly while glancing about the bus, "You're welcome. Wait... You're the pop singer, right?"

Weiss turned to the younger woman while raising a brow before nodding, "Yes, I am."

"Cool," Ruby stated with an earnest smile, "then you probably know where you can get some pants and a decent pair of boots on this thing. Unless you want to run around a zombie infested city in a skirt and heels that is."

Weiss glared at Ruby for a few moments, not sure whether to like or hate the other woman for a few moments, before deciding on practicality.

"Watch my back while I change?"

A shot range out as an approaching zombie had its head explode, glancing back Officer Rose's look clearly stated, _'Stop wasting my time would you?'_

Huffing Weiss began digging through her nearly completely destroyed luggage in search of appropriate clothes, ignoring the gunshots that echoed through her now wrecked tour bus to the best of her ability.

* * *

 **Insomnia fueled, sorry if it is rough. Ruby is not an introvert like a lot of my female characters but she is socially stunted, Jaune has helped immeasurably but when she's stressed out she goes into 'Qrow Mode' which is not healthy.**

 **At fucking all.**

 **Anyway, please review if you liked it, hated it, or just want more of it!**


	3. Welcome to the City of the Dead

**Written in a half hour, very much inspired by the Resident Evil 2 remake**

* * *

Two young women ran along a deserted street, one wide eyed and terrified wishing for a rational explanation as to what the literal hell was going on; all while the other was equally terrified yet her only current wish was for an under slung grenade launcher for her M4.

"Keep moving!" Ruby yelled as she smacked the dead head in front of her in the sternum with her rifle while quickly falling to the ground and taking his legs out from beneath him with a sweep kick. Not even pausing a moment she shot to her feet and grabbed Weiss's hand and kept running through the back streets of Vale when she skidded to a halt viewing the open intersection before them.

"I have a mag left for the rifle, two for my sidearm...and...oh...shit..."

Weiss was about to make a snide comment when she realized why the local cop had frozen.

"Oh...oh...Oum...what..."

Hundreds, no, _thousands_ of zombies stumbled down the thoroughfare and Weiss realized she was hyperventilating only after Ruby had pushed her against the wall and covered her mouth and nose with her hand preventing her from breathing.

This kicked in a rough reset, and after choking a few moments Ruby released her and grabbed her hand dragging her to the side of a dumpster while taking in their surroundings, eventually she spotted what she needed and let out a frustrated sigh.

"Shit, waste of ammo," Ruby muttered as she drew her rifle to bear and snapped a shot off that caused a ladder to fall to the alley floor.

"What?" Weiss asked in surprise, but Ruby did not have the time to explain as she pushed fair haired woman forward.

"Questions later, not getting eaten by the undead now!"

Taking one glance at the now mobile shambling horde approaching their alley Weiss nodded and quickly scampered up the ladder followed by the cop who upon stepping on the deck quickly began running a hand crank that retracted the emergency ladder off the city streets.

Grimacing Ruby held the handle fast while she turned to Weiss, a sense of desperation roiling off her as she spat out, "I need something to jam this in place! I blew the lock to get us out of _that_ , so any help would be greatly appreciated."

It only took a minute for her to find a length of rebar and a grateful Ruby took it and jammed it into the mechanisms gears letting the entire thing lock up as she stepped away.

Ruby bent over, holding her hands to her knees breathing heavily for a time before she began shaking, then her head fell back, and _then_ she began laughing. She stayed that way for a time before she turned back to Weiss, and the beaming smile she shot the pop singer caused her to freeze in place.

"Well done," Ruby said while standing up straight, "But I'm not a babysitter, just a cop, so you good at any form of self defense miss songstress?"

Feeling slightly insulted Weiss nodded as she stood to her...rather unremarkable full height as she replied, "I will have you know that I have been trained in the use of blades since I was a small child. My preference being weapons usually regulated to fencing, also my sister trained me to use small caliber pistols, military nut and all."

Ruby's reaction to that statement was rather unexpected, "Really? Well, my sister in law happens to be an antiques collector, I have a key to her and my sister's place, and I _know_ she has a whole bunch of stabby warfare weapons stored away. So what say we let the Zeds clear on their own accord and then we get you properly equipped?"

Weiss was silent for a time, then nodded as both women fell to the rusting grating below them, curling up next to each other and trying their best to ignore the City of the Dead writhing around them as they were serenaded with the cries of the damned.

They remained silent for a time, when Ruby finally spoke up, "Hey, Weiss?"

The snow haired woman took some time to respond, but she eventually did, "Yes?"

"I'm terrified and I don't know what to do about it."

Weiss remained silent for a time, then pulled Ruby closer, "Yeah...me too..."


End file.
